04.30.11 · 2:50 AM

Rita Rudner remembers her favorite — and only — co-star, the irreplaceable Bonkers

Rita Rudner is not a prop comic. Where Carrot Top pulls from a dozen trunks stuffed with disfigured artifacts, Rudner pulls from shopping and parenting anecdotes. She is, consistently, a pure soloist in her show at the Venetian. But it wasn’t always so. For years, Rudner shared the stage with a co-star, playing straight woman to a somewhat distracted, long-haired companion who specialized in improv comedy. This was Bonkers, an unspecified mixed breed who, as Rudner notes, looked like a ... Read more...

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04.28.11 · 8 PM

Chateau Nightclub finds a windfall, and its name is Charlie Sheen

Say this for Charlie Sheen: He gets paid, quite handsomely, for doing what he’d certainly pay to do anyway. Such as, make merriment with beautiful women and fawning fans at a Las Vegas nightclub. For the first time since he embarked on his touring My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option one-man show, Sheen is to appear at a club event in Vegas. On Saturday night — no, rather, early Sunday morning — Sheen is to appear at ... Read more...

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04.28.11 · 10 AM

Steve Wynn hopes to keep wedding private — is this possible?

Steve Wynn says he wants his upcoming wedding to Andrea Hissom to be a largely private affair. Hmmm. To quote those on the casino floor who helped Wynn build his resort empire, “Good luck with that.” Nonetheless, Wynn and Hissom are doing their best to keep the media at bay when they celebrate their marriage during a two-day fete Friday and Saturday at Wynn Las Vegas. Hissom has done such an effective job that she was not around today, when ... Read more...

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04.27.11 · 8:40 PM

A moment with Steve Martin, where we learn that even in a bluegrass show, there is room for ‘King Tut’

The rule of engagement for this conference call is merely to keep the questions centered on Steve Martin’s banjo artistry and his music project, the bluegrass band formally titled Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. But there must be a way to ask about King Tut. There has to be. And there is. Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers have been known to play the classic parody “King Tut” during their otherwise traditional bluegrass shows. So it is ... Read more...

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04.26.11 · 12:55 PM

Gladys Knight on an important title change and why her show is so ‘raw’

Gladys Knight tells a story about the biggest hit she recorded with her familial backing vocalists, the Pips. The song is “Midnight Train to Georgia,” but the song was nearly an ode to a different means of transportation and a different city. “When the song came to us, ‘Midnight Plane to Houston,’ ” Knight said during an interview on Kats With the Dish that aired Friday on KUNV 91.5-FM. The song’s tune was changed because Knight and the Pips were ... Read more...

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04.24.11 · 9:40 PM

Lewis Black plays the Mirage, and, wow, if he doesn’t have company

You have to wonder what inspires an audience member to disrupt a stand-up comedy show. Let’s climb inside the head of such an individual and find out … The billboards and signs strategically placed around the Mirage say, “Aces Of Comedy, Lewis Black.” But those slabs of advertising do not reveal the entirety of this entertainment experience, for tonight, I shall co-star. It will be an unbilled performance, as always, yet just as vital to the evening of laughter as ... Read more...

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04.24.11 · 9:22 PM

In first Colosseum show, Janet Jackson goes solo — and so does her wardrobe

How very un-Cher-y. Janet Jackson performed an entire concert at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Friday night wearing exactly one outfit: jeans, a tank top and boots. By comparison, Garth Brooks seems overdressed in his no-frills show at Encore Theater. Garth does add a ball cap, at least. Not Jackson. This all happened, or didn’t, in a showroom where Cher produced 13 costume changes, by my own hand (and foot) count during the late stages of her run at ... Read more...

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04.24.11 · 12:35 AM

‘Broadway Bares’ is a different sort of midnight mass

If your post-egg hunt calendar is still open Sunday, especially late, late Sunday, we have an unlikely option: Topless frippery. Some of the performers in Las Vegas’ top adult shows, joined by performers whose shows play to the greater mean, are putting on Broadway Bares: Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood’s Peepshow theater (which is called by those at the hotel, but seemingly nobody else, the CHI Showroom). To complete the Broadway Bares circle, Peepshow is produced by Tony Award-winning choreographer ... Read more...

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04.23.11 · 2:20 AM

Clint Holmes a hit with star-studded audience and the New York Times in Feinstein’s appearance

Clint Holmes has picked up what they term in sports as a road victory with his opening at Feinstein’s at Lowes Regency in New York. In attendance Thursday night, the first show in a four-performance engagement, were Liza Minnelli, Harry Belafonte, Michael Feinstein, former New York Mayor David Dinkins, jazz great (and Henderson resident) Dee Dee Bridgewater, famed songwriter-composer Leslie Bricusse and esteemed Las Vegas entertainer Kelly Clinton Holmes, who doubles as Holmes’ wife. Backed by a just a trio ... Read more...

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04.21.11 · 11:30 PM

Laugh factory: Notes from ‘Sin City Comedy,’ Romano at Mirage, Carvey and Garrett

Like a Rodney Dangerfield impressionist awaiting a rim shot, I’ve been holding off writing a notes column about comedy in Vegas until … well, now. Here goes: • Sin City Comedy is moving, or is it dancing, to a weekly show on a major comedy outlet. The club at V Theater at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood is shooting two shows Tuesday as a pilot for a new series set in the club, which is part of the David ... Read more...

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04.20.11 · 5:25 PM

Post-Santana Joint to be filled one night at a time

In the music venue business, it’s OK to be afraid of the dark. A darkened theater (unless it is the sort of darkness used as a stage effect by Nine Inch Nails) is equal to a night of lost revenue. But promoters should not fear filling the concert schedule one night at a time. “I’m never afraid of one-offing it to death,” says Paul Davis, vice president of entertainment at the Hard Rock Hotel. “We’re OK with that. It keeps ... Read more...

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04.19.11 · 3:55 PM

‘Pawn Star’ Big Hoss, free of Big Bear incident, says he has no beef with anyone

I think it was Hemingway who said, “The best way to sate a loudmouth at a bar is to ply him with booze.” But Corey “Big Hoss” Harrison was not in a plying mood on the night of March 20 at Murray’s Saloon & Eatery in Big Bear, Calif. The outcome was that there was an argument. There was some swearing. A bouncer wound up calling law enforcement (a single cop) to the scene. Harrison was asked to apologize and ... Read more...

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04.18.11 · 6 PM

For a change, Carrot Top plays it straight

The depiction seems no joking matter, but Scott Thompson jokes about it anyway. To paraphrase, he looks at a photo of himself with long, waveless hair and says, “I would have sex with her.” More seriously, he says, “I’m pleasantly shocked. I look really good.” For a man who has spent decades painstakingly crafting an image known as “Carrot Top,” it was a significant departure of character. For an afternoon and for a photo shoot for the new issue of ... Read more...

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04.17.11 · 6:25 PM

Penn & Teller, Holly Madison, Jabbawockeez, Jersey Boys, Hal Sparks, Rep. Berkley — it must be AFAN!

The interview was supposed to last 20 minutes, no longer. Forty minutes later, I’m being poked, in a friendly but urgent fashion, and told, “We need to wrap it up!” So it is with Penn Jillette, who was a guest on Friday’s Kats With The Dish. This particular interview, conducted in Penn & Teller’s “Monkey Room,” so captivated me that I didn’t realize that we’d doubled our allotted time until the Dish jabbed me in the ribs and, mercifully, closed ... Read more...

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04.16.11 · 7:46 PM

From ‘flipper’ Jeff Lewis: Don’t get so emotionally attached to your home

Jeff Lewis is the star of Bravo’s reality TV series Flipping Out, cast as an intense, no-nonsense, micromanaging, obsessive-compulsive real estate magnate. Himself, in other words. Lewis is of the country’s more adroit real estate “flippers” (one who buys property at a low figure, renovates, then quickly “flips” for profit). He has also founded his own interior design company, Jeff Lewis Design. Lewis appeared at Las Vegas Design Center at World Market Center today for an open-to-the-public Q&A centered on ... Read more...

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04.15.11 · 7 PM

Notes: Dana Carvey takes on Charlie Sheen; Macca books MGM Grand; Flavor Flav’s Riv pitch takes wing

Notes from afield and afar: • Dana Carvey remains the man best known for his portrayals of such Saturday Night Live characters as the hyper-defensive bodybuilder in the Hans & Franz sketch, the Church Lady, Garth in Wayne’s World and his impressions of George H.W. Bush and Johnny Carson. But his latest, a twisted take (as if there could be any other) on Charlie Sheen is among his best. As he explained on this week’s episode of Kats With the ... Read more...

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04.14.11 · 7:04 AM

Notes: Heat rises from Mirage; Zowie Bowie keeps it real at GVR; AIDS charities prep for events

Notes compiled on the streets of VegasVille, where we found something to write about at Mirage, Green Valley Ranch, Flamingo and elsewhere: • Anyone who expected Felix Rappaport to act as a mere caretaker as president of the Mirage is mistaken. By the end of the year, expect major changes, some of them mere renovations and other massive overhauls, to the hotel’s restaurant lineup. In the offing is a new restaurant partnership with a heretofore-unannounced celebrity with culinary underpinnings. Not ... Read more...

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04.12.11 · 12:50 AM

Dave Rice, once a teacher in sweats, has grown into a coach in a suit

The day I met Dave Rice, he was wearing sweats. Most of the days I met with Dave Rice thereafter, he also was wearing sweats. They were prison gray, not at all fancy, with “UNLV” shouting in red letters across the chest. The UNLV coaching staff in those days was known more for being well-suited than sweat-suited. Then-head coach Bill Bayno and his assistants strode often onto the court as if they were models in a runway show at Fashion ... Read more...

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04.10.11 · 2:25 PM

Hef at 85: ‘Age is just a number’

You watch as Hugh Hefner moves through a nightclub, cutting through the crowd while awash in lights and seemingly bemused at the hullabaloo his presence has caused. And you wonder how he does it, a man in his mid-80s whose contemporaries are likely long asleep as he celebrates his birthday in the thick of madness at The Playboy Club and Moon at the Palms. You ask him for his secret. There is none. “If you’re in good shape, age is ... Read more...

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04.6.11 · 6:45 PM

With all this wackiness, the show must be called ‘Vintage Vegas’

Chris Phillips is talking about his personal life on live radio. He is aware that the show is not being taped, as everyone has already talked of the unique tension that is a live, unfiltered, unedited radio broadcast. Phillips is better known as Zowie Bowie and has performed in a variety of music stylings in Vegas lounges and showrooms since moving to town to open Red Rock Resort’s Rocks Lounge in 2006. Incessantly tanned, his hair a field of blond ... Read more...

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04.4.11 · 9:20 PM

Lessons in crowd control and audience growth from ACM Awards, Michael Jordan tournament

Sweeping the parade after a wild weekend, even by Vegas standards: ACM Awards blossoming The 46th Academy of Country Music Awards filled MGM Grand Garden Arena and Mandalay Events Center on Sunday night and cut loose with two heavily attended free shows Friday and Saturday nights at the Fremont Street Experience. So the clear move is to further inflate the event. The weekend’s various showcases marked the largest ACM event ever in Las Vegas. The Fan Jam simulcast was viewed ... Read more...

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04.4.11 · 11:20 AM

Academy of Country Music dishes its awards, but whoa — there are trophies left over!

The 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards again emptied its trophy case at the MGM Grand Garden Arena tonight. About 10,000 fans, a slightly shrunken capacity because of the big stage needed for the CBS broadcast, took in a 3-hour show stuffed with awards voted on by fans weighing in on text messages. The unfailingly radiant Taylor Swift won the night’s biggest honor, Entertainer of the Year. Miranda Lambert was voted Female Vocalist of the Year, and Brad Paisley ... Read more...

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04.4.11 · 4:20 AM

Thomas Henderson’s odyssey is a tale made for Hollywood

The Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational golf tournament gala at Aria’s Pinyon Ballroom on Friday night was quite the humdinger. More than 1,000 guests reveled in an event that likely cost in the high six figures, maybe more. The desert buffet alone would have carried the party on its own. Even hotel officials who have seen all variety of events in Vegas were nonplussed at the scope of what Jordan’s tournament unleashed on the resort. One attendee says he walked into ... Read more...

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04.3.11 · 3:50 PM

At Caesars Palace, ‘Absinthe’ pushes adult circus to the present tents

There was ample, enthusiastic prattle centering on the new show Absinthe at the show’s after-party at the Spiegelworld Beer Garden at Caesars Palace on Friday night. Most guests seemed to enjoy the performance to the point of abject astonishment, agreeing that this is one of the more inventive and daring shows to open on the Strip in years. But a few others weren’t so taken. One contradict-arian who had just seen the R-rated circus production asked, “How do you promote ... Read more...

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04.1.11 · 5:20 PM

As Texas makes its move, ACM Awards plays Vegas

Country music fans clamoring for the Academy of Country Awards to keep its Tony Lamas in Vegas should pay attention to the obvious: The Texas Legislature. Well, maybe that’s not so obvious. But to keep the ACM Awards live broadcast and peripheral events from doin’ a boot-scootin’ boogie to Cowboys Stadium, Las Vegas needs to shine this weekend while keeping an eye on the competition. Of course, that would be Arlington, Texas, home of the Death Star-ian facility where city ... Read more...

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04.1.11 · 10:35 AM

Remembering attack, Anna Nateece says, ‘I didn’t know whether I was alive or dead’

Anna Nateece, her voice quivering, recalls the moment: “It was like being attacked by a hurricane. You have no idea how terrifying and shocking it was.” For decades the costume designer for her dear friend and confidante Liberace, Nateece is recovering from a horrific attack Sunday night at the CVS store at Charleston Boulevard and Durango Road. The renowned designer and longtime board member of the Liberace Foundation is recovering at her home after spending four days at Valley Hospital ... Read more...

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Featured Cocktail

Cocktail of the Week May 23, 2012
by Sabrina Chapman

Rhumbar’s Scorpion Bowl stings so good

Ready to celebrate the official start of summer? Prepare for takeoff. Memorial Day Weekend picks up speed with the addition of Rhumbar’s Scorpion Bowl ($49) to the weekend’s party lineup. ...
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